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Reports say that Nicki Minaj is leaving American Idol after today's finale - and so am I! Photo: Wikipedia

Millions of viewers around the country will be glued to their TVs tonight for the grand finale of American Idol Season 12. After all, it’s not the kind of thing you can Tivo and watch later at risk of having already heard the result. Nonetheless, some of the usual drama is missing this year, if only because no matter who wins it will cap a good season, and whoever wins will be deserving: all of the final three singers this year have commercial potential, and any of them would eclipse the winners of several past seasons. Unfortunately for two of them, as Angie Miller found out last week, they all came along at the same time.

I’ll be one of those many Idol fans tuning in tonight and enjoying the season finale, but for me it will be more than that, it will be the finale period. I’m quitting Idol.

It’s been a good run and I’ve enjoyed the hours some would say I wasted. I was late to the show, only watched it for the first time five years ago, and quickly got hooked. I even attended the finale in person in LA three years ago, and loved the experience. But in retrospect I wonder how many people who started at the beginning, twelve long years ago, still watch. After all, at some point I think everyone outgrows Idol. I know I did.

The first ominous hint of the show’s direction away from my demographic came when they lowered the age limit for competitors. I can see having a minimum, but never understood why there would be a ceiling on talent. Now I know why - American Idol is not for my age bracket.

The writing I should have seen on the wall became more apparent when they traded Steven Tyler, who like him or not is a bonafide rock legend, an icon, for Nicki Minaj, a name that in comparison lingers in music history obscurity and must have elicited a lot of blank stares from the folks who were the original Idol fans twelve years ago. Turns out she was just doing a quick visit to Idol anyway: ABC News, US Weekly and the LA Times are just some of the many online outlets that reported yesterday after Randy Jackson’s formal announcement that he was leaving the show - the last of the original judges to do so - that Minaj’s camp confirmed her departure after just a single season. This makes her only the second one year judge in the show’s history along with Ellen DeGeneres (she might not hold that distinction for long, as both Mariah Carey and Keith Urban are heavily rumored to be on their way out the door for a clean judging panel sweep). I didn’t care for either Tyler or Minaj as judges, but the gulf in the audience they appeal to is huge and speaks mainly to age - I doubt if many of this season’s contestants would even have known who Tyler - or Aerosmith - was.

Randy Jackson was the last original judge left after 12 years, but he's gone too. Photo: Wikipedia

While this year’s judging panel was the worst I’ve seen, they are not why I am leaving Idol - it’s the contestants. As talented as they are - and they are very talented - I have a total disconnect with them that became apparent when they were asked to perform Beatles songs and many of them seemed to have no idea who the Beatles were, let alone know any of their songs. Ditto for “Classic Rock” week, when some seemed surprised to learn there that there was a musical genre called classic rock. Burnell Taylor sang Bon Jovi’s You Give Love a Bad Name, and there was nothing wrong with doing the hit, but everything wrong with the reason behind the song choice - it was the only song on the classic rock list he had ever heard. All this was cemented last week after the judges complemented awesome singing talent Candice Glover for taking more of the approach that Mary J Blige took with the song One than the original performers, U2, when it was revealed that until the song was foisted on her, she had never heard either version of the huge hit. Consistently, from the beginning of the season, most contestants, male or female, when given free choice, wanted to sing diva-esque ballads. It’s only been two years since Idol’s most memorable rocker, James Durbin, pleaded with the crowd to “Give Metal A Chance,” but to me it seems like an eternity - during which the contestants forgot that there were such things as Metal, Classic Rock and the Beatles. It’s a generational gap the show has actively encouraged, and that’s why I’m leaving American Idol.

Like I said it’s been a good run, and I’ve enjoyed it. Lately all my friends say I should check out The Voice - maybe next season.